Yes, the answer is that there is a difference, but it is more complex than this simple monosyllabic summary. The full study is contained in the latest article published by the Pain Observatory team in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.
Entitled “Differences in Cognitive Function in Women and Men with Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy with or without Pain”, this study, carried out by Jenifer Palomo Osuna, aimed to analyse the differences in cognitive function between women and men with type 2 diabetes mellitus and diabetic peripheral neuropathy with and without diabetic neuropathic pain. The factors associated with cognitive function in each sex were also investigated.
The results showed that it was women who had greater cognitive impairment both overall and in specific areas such as: calculation, memory, executive function and other similarities. It was also found that the presence of pain had a greater impact on the different dimensions in men.
Also, being older and having cardiovascular risk factors was associated with worse cognitive function also in women. In the case of men, older age, more years with diabetes and the presence of pathologies such as depression were associated with poorer cognitive function.
In conclusion, we would like to point out that we wanted to carry out this work, taking into account that for many years both basic research studies and clinical studies were carried out only with male subjects, and that there is an increasing amount of research that supports the need to carry out studies differentiating by sex.
In this way, we can identify risk factors that may be different, affecting possible responses to treatment. On the other hand, within clinical practice, the identification of these factors can facilitate a therapeutic intervention that achieves better results in each sex.
You can read the full article by clicking here
